Press

TV coverage of feature film Drawing Home.

Interview with Margarethe Baillou, writer-director of live action short, Le Pardon. “[C]ollecting stories is a passion, and some stories are simply shorter than others. [This is] a short story, an audio-visual poem, a moving picture and a love letter to New Orleans which I visited in 2007, not long after Hurricane Katrina when the city was still hurting. At that point, the story had already been written, but I was still looking for the right setting. Experiencing how warmly New Orleans welcomed artists even after the nightmare it had been through was very touching, and I decided to shoot there. So, the location became a major motivator for telling the story.”

Interview with Rutger Hauer who plays the late German wildlife artist, Carl Rungius in the feature film, Drawing Home, and who wrote a poem for the film.  “I had been looking for a poem by an American Indian. I found a good one and tried to connect with the writer of this poem, but could never get a response from him. I decided to write a poem myself that expressed some of the same things. After I filmed, I went to the set to say goodbye to everyone, and I mentioned to the producers that I had written this poem. They asked if they could film me reciting it, so that’s what they did. It made sense being in the film and it was nice that it ended up in the final version.”

Interview with Margarethe Baillou and Allan Neuwirth about their feature film, Drawing Home, and their conscious decision to cast Canadian newcomers to play the leads. “Juan Riedinger who played Peter not only was […] Canadian, but he was born and grew up just blocks from where Peter Whyte lived. Julie [Lynn Mortensen] is from Calgary but she had spent an enormous amount of time in the Rockies. So they are both from there which is one of the main reasons why we connected with them aside from their acting abilities. We needed actors who shared the mentality of those people. These were fictional characters we were trying to bring to life. They were real and we wanted to honor them and we wanted to be respectful of their legacy. We wanted newcomers because it is a true story and we wanted that element of authenticity.”

Behind-the-scenes coverage of feature film Drawing Home. “In the winter of 2011, two very different film productions were underway in the Canadian Rockies. One was a unit shoot for Hollywood blockbuster, The Bourne Legacy. The other was Drawing Home, a low-budget biopic about Banff wildlife artists Peter and Catharine Whyte. The team producing Drawing Home was hoping for snow and plenty of it since there was no budget to produce it artificially. The folks behind Bourne Legacy? Not so much. So when a blizzard descended on the mountains, the two teams had very different reactions.”

Interview with Margarethe Baillou about feature film, Drawing Home. “When I learned of the real-life story of the late Peter and Catharine Whyte of Banff, I instantly saw a movie and I became determined to tell the story authentically, using factual Alberta locations and Canadian talent to portray the tale on screen to honor the cultural origin of the story.”

Coverage of animated short, Telling a You, by Margarethe Baillou. "[Baillou] chose the 1960s as time period for Telling A You because of her admiration of its fashion: feminine, elegant dresses and handbags for the ladies and handsome suits (‘or, in our case, suit jacket and Bermuda shorts’), ties and hats for men. Even the scooter and scooter helmet designs are based on 1960s originals… The Bermudian voices and setting make this project a true celebration of Bermuda, its people and its warm beauty. To make history on a project that is sure to welcome warm accolades and an enthusiastic audience is an extraordinary opportunity for the participants and the island as a whole.”

Coverage of feature film, Drawing Home. "The story of Peter and Catharine Whyte is the quintessential Banff story and an integral part of the community’s fabric and legacy. And when it comes to Drawing Home, a feature-length film about Peter and Catharine that is currently in production in the Banff-Bow Valley region, who better to play Peter, who was born in Banff in 1905 into the prominent Whyte family, than Banff-born actor Juan Riedinger?"

Coverage of video art installation, One After, by Margarethe Baillou, staged on October 10 in observance of the World Day Against the Death Penalty. “We set aside all textual and verbal narration for this work," says Ms. Baillou, a German filmmaker based in New York. "This leaves any opinions, personal interpretations and moral responses directly with the viewer, whom we recognize as a witness."

Review of documentary short, Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy, by Academy Award nominee Alice Elliott. “Watching Kathy and Diana live their lives often seems like an I-Ching guide to gratitude and appreciation for the gifts most of us receive simply by being in good health. When film can actually encourage and stimulate transformation, the art form transcends itself.”